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Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 Starts in Late April

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Blizzard posted an update on Overwatch 2 today and revealed that the game's PvP Beta will start in late April for PC in select regions. 

In the latest developer update, Game Director Aaron Keller revealed that Overwatch 2's PvP and PvE experiences will be separated from one another to get PvP content into your hands sooner, while the team continues to work on PvE. Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 will start in late April and the following will be available for testing:

  • 5v5 
  • New Hero: Sojourn 
  • 4 New Maps 
  • New Mode: Push 
  • Hero Reworks: Orisa, Doomfist, Bastion, Sombra
  • New Ping System

Blizzard Logo(Source)

Overwatch is evolving. In our first step towards increased communication and a consistent cadence of updates for our community, we are incredibly excited to share information about our plans for the upcoming months. We are changing our release strategy by decoupling Overwatch 2’s PvP and PvE experiences from one another to get new PvP content into your hands sooner, while we continue to work on PvE. Learn more about what’s happening through our most recent developer update with Game Director Aaron Keller: 

Closed alpha testing for Overwatch 2 PvP begins today in select regions, and includes Blizzard employees, Overwatch League pros, and a few other select groups to help us prepare for wider testing.

Then our first PvP Beta will begin in late April for PC in select regions. This closed beta will include a larger group of testers who we will ask to provide gameplay feedback. Our goal for this phase is to test our new features, content, and systems before we shift to stress-testing the servers with a wider player base in future Beta tests.

This first PvP Beta will include the most significant release we’ve had since our launch. Here are the major items you can expect to see from the first beta!

  • 5v5 
  • New Hero: Sojourn 
  • New Maps 
  • New Mode:Push 
  • Hero Reworks
  • New Ping System

OW_Beta1Overview_Sojourn_B03-JP02_NoESRB_Blizzardcom_Launcher_1920x1080.png

You can sign up to request access to the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta 1 now on PlayOverwatch.com. Players will be granted access in phases, and we will add more and more players as we progress through the upcoming beta phases. We will also be sharing regular updates about what to expect in this first beta in the weeks leading up until its launch. 

Thank you for coming along with us as we step forward into a new era of Overwatch. We can’t wait to show you more!

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It sounds like they are downscaling the game a bit. PvE was supposed to come together with PvP changes, it was supposed to be a huge selling point of OW2 (which was already hardly worth being called a sequel tbh, more like an expansion). What's the point of calling it OW2 now? PvE could potentially attract more players. But now it's just a bunch of balance changes, maps, new skins and... just one new hero? We've already seen Sojourn during original announcement.

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I feel like peoples underestimate what is being done for the PvE mode, I really think it will be a game on it's own.

What he says is that to help with the delay they just decided to release the PvP part of OW2 earlier the part that is cool but not that critical to OW2 true core (the PvE).

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      Control Ilios - Evening Lighting Lijiang Tower - Dawn Lighting Oasis - Night Lighting Nepal - Morning Lighting Busan - Night Lighting Escort Circuit royal – Night Lighting Dorado - Evening Lighting Route 66 - Night Lighting Gibraltar - Morning Lighting Junkertown - Morning Lighting Hybrid Midtown - Morning Lighting King’s Row - Evening Lighting Eichenwalde - Evening Lighting Hollywood - Morning Lighting Paraíso - Morning Lighting Push New Queen Street - Morning Lighting Colosseo - Evening Lighting Esperança - Morning Lighting Each subsequent season, we will rotate some maps out of the map pool and bring back others that had been previously out of rotation. As we continue to rotate maps in and out, we’ll be looking at improving and tweaking them, so for example, when Rialto returns in Season Two, players will notice a few spots where we have added additional cover which should help the map play better in the 5v5 environment with reduced shields. For players who want to play maps not currently in the map rotation, hop into a custom game or the occasional arcade mode.
      Climbing the ranks
      Our team would like to apologize for ranking many players too low during the first week of Overwatch 2. We discovered a bug that was impacting player skill ratings, which is what contributed to many players being placed in Bronze 5 when they should have been placed higher. Our most recent patch included a fix that will help you get back to your true rank quickly, and that will be reflected the next time you receive a competitive ranking update. You will receive a boost as you continue playing to help you get up to the correct ranks. Players who haven’t yet placed in competitive won’t experience this issue after the fix goes live.
      We’re also watching your feedback about how we present your skill tier and division and how you celebrate that in-game. While we don’t have any details we can share yet, expect us to make more improvements to Competitive, and we will continue to watch for your feedback.
      Thank you for week one, and here’s to many more
      Finally, we want to ensure games play out fairly for all players in all matches. In a future patch, we’ll fix an issue that could cause some rubber banding in-game. We also want to be certain that hit registration for shots fired is working pixel-perfectly. We have investigated reports from players about hit registration, and many reports are actually related to how our replay tool works, which does not perfectly capture the alignment of each player’s aim. 
      There are also misconceptions about how our controller settings on PC work, which does not affect mouse input. As an example, aim smoothing under gamepad does not impact mouse input latency or precision. However, in one report, we discovered a bug that affected the hitbox alignment of our rendered objects for Junker Queen in some specific situations, and we’re working diligently to fix this issue. 
      We also understand that some PC players have concerns with input responsiveness and recommend trying out these changes to improve how quickly the game responds to player input:
      Make sure the in-game resolution setting matches your actual monitor’s set resolution. Set the capped frame rate to a value that matches your monitor’s maximum frame rate. If you have an NVidia graphics card, turn on NVidia Reflex + Boost. Otherwise, turn on Reduced Buffering for other GPUs. Finally, in your gameplay options, turn on Enable High Precision Mouse Input to speed up how frequently your mouse captures position in the game. Thank you to all the players who were a part of the first week of Overwatch 2. While this time has been incredibly exciting for the community and our team, it’s also come with many challenges that we're looking to address quickly. We will continue to listen to player feedback as we strive to make Overwatch 2 the best game it can be, and we are looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks leading up to Season Two. In the meantime, we hope everyone is having a blast in the game, and we will talk again soon! 
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